Erin Flynn and Skip Connett

currently in Austin

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Erin Flynn and Skip Connett

Erin Flynn and Skipp Connett are both agriculturists from organic Green Gate Farms in east Austin. Find out more by visiting greengatefarms.net.

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Recent Episodes

Square Foot Gardening

Why is Mel Bartholomew’s innovative square foot gardening concept so valuable today? Son Steve Bartholomew from the Square Foot Gardening Foundation explains why his dad developed the concept, easy steps to make one, and how its global impact conquers hunger. In Leander, Ellen and Rick Bickling turned the kids’ old basketball court into square foot | watch episode →

Half-Pint Urban Prairie + Native Fruit Tress

Let’s get growing native fruit trees! Horticulturist Karen Beaty from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center plucks a few for big and small gardens to feed us, the birds, and beneficial pollinators. To demonstrate the beauty and value of the Blackland Prairie, University of Texas at Austin students are seeding the future at the Half-Pint | watch episode →

September To Do List

Plant: ornamental & wildlife

Late month: Perennials, shrubs, ornamental (clumping) grasses
Late month: Cover crops for dormant vegetable beds: clover, hairy vetch, elbon (cereal) rye, Austrian winter peas, or annual rye

Plant: herbs

Perennial herbs like thyme, rosemary, oregano

Plant: food crops

Start winter seeds like lettuce, broccoli, kale and spinach in pots in shady areas
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Vegetable Planting Guides (Central Texas) http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/travis/home-landscape/edible-gardens/growing-vegetables/

Prune

Early month: lightly prune roses and perennials
Oak trees safe to prune

Divide/Move

Iris, daylily, fern, liriope, spring-blooming perennials, violets, cannas

Prep

Add compost to vegetable gardens along with organic fertilizer in prep for winter vegetables
Decide wildflower seeds and bulbs to plant in November

Lawn

Brown patch: Apply a quarter inch of compost. Apply corn meal. Find out what’s causing the problem like low drainage spots or compacted areas.
Apply corn gluten as a weed pre-emergent. Results are erratic but it does add some nitrogen to the soil
Mow high to fend off weed seeds that germinate in September’s rains. Taller grass shades them out.

Other tasks

If fall webworms are a problem, puncture webs with broom handle for wasps to naturally control. Or spray with Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt).

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